GREENVILLE - As much as we attempt to downplay the significance of race in America, our ethnicity continues to be the hot topic of counter-top conversation.
It is a dialogue that manifests itself in many different contexts - some contentious and repugnant, but for the most part our colloquy has been harmonious with a view toward the common good.
Nevertheless, it is not surprising that the racial brew continues to be stirred this month with the 40th anniversary of the assassination of civil rights leader Medgar Evers and death of baseball pioneer Larry Doby.
On a lesser scale, we have Chicago Cubs' slugger Sammy Sosa and his corked bat, and the kicking to the curb of Colonel Reb, the longtime Ole Miss mascot.
In each case, tragic or not, the specter of race has percolated close to the surface. With Evers and Doby, their lives rekindled remembrances of our nation's racial past. It is a distasteful period that the media display an unquenchable thirst to continuously replay.
In Mississippi, race has been a dividing rod in retarding the social growth and economic development of minorities.
But through federal government intervention, the civil rights movement and a coalition of organizations dedicated to doing the so-called right thing, a profound change has swept across Magnolia in the last four decades.
See the good that can transpire when people of differing backgrounds and cultures come together - checking personal agendas at the door - to promote racial goodwill for their fellow citizens.
In both a personal and public way, Evers and Doby had impacts in changing America's social landscape so it has become more reflective of the human mosaic at large.
Everyone knows that Jackie Robinson broke the unwritten colorline in major league baseball when he crossed the white chalk at Ebbets Field to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947.
Robinson became an unofficial ambassador for blacks - a symbol of integrity, spunk and courage on and off the baseball diamond. Placed squarely under the media magnifying glass, Robinson responded magnificently under intense pressure and a public scrutiny that would have destroyed lesser men.
But several weeks later, Doby became the first black player to integrate the American League when he too the field with the Cleveland Indians.
Doby was an outstanding player, but he always performed in the Robinson shadow. In life, very few people ever recall who comes in second.
Nevertheless, Doby had to contend with the same taunts and racial insults as Robinson, although reporters were less inclined to chronicle the racial refuse hurled his way.
What Doby, Robinson, Evers and other human rights activists showed during a pivotal time in America is that people of color can indeed produce on a higher plane if simply given the opportunity.
Don't think for one minute that freedom in America or any country is free. Independence comes with a hefty human price tag - taking lives and crushing dreams in the process.
Yet I long for the day when race and ethnicity are no longer human variables in deciding who gets what and for how long.
I prefer to judge character rather than color. But in some quarters of our society, we have adopted a cookie-cutter approach, where entire ethnic groups are marginalized because of the shenanigans of a few. It is a distorted perception we all need to shun.
We forget all too conveniently at times that America was constructed from the blood, sweat and brawn of many - all culled from God's melting pot.
